Jeff Malet Photography

Golden Bull / Golden Calf protest

Occupy DC protesters took their anti-corporate demonstration to Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. on December 15, 2011, carrying a "golden bull" to symbolize Congress' subservience to moneyed interests. The paper-mache bull was designed to look like the iconic Wall Street statue in New York's financial district, and is of course an allusion to the biblical "Golden Calf". The protest aimed to call attention to the worship of money by the US legislature and called for an end to the influence of big money in politics. Catholics United, an organization that professes to promote justice and the common good, first unveiled a symbolic golden calf at an Occupy Wall Street march in October. This day they joined with protesters at McPherson Square in hopes of delivering the calf to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). While they did not see the Speaker, they did deliver a petition to his office's outer door. (They were not allowed inside). Unfortunately, the Golden Bull could not enter the Raybourn House Office Building. He could not fit through the x-ray machine anyway.